Can't Fight the Moonlight
by SpaimaffChicks
Summary: Remus Lupin/OC romance! Love, angst, secrets and everyone's favorite werewolf! Set during POA. Full Summary inside...theres never enough room on these things...


A/N: Hey everyone!  Katy and Debbie here, and we've decided to try our hand at a Remus story.  Our plotline's pretty different, but we think we'll have fun with it.  Oh, and it is set during Prisoner of Azkaban and told basically from Lupin's POV so if there are references to Sirius being the murderer that's why.  Tell us what you think at the end of the chapter!!  Oh, and with school and stuff, and rather lengthy chapters, it will probably be about a week to a week and half between updates.  LOL ok onto the story and don't forget to leave us a review if you read!  Any and all reviews are greatly appreciated!!!

Extended Summary (They don't give you enough room on the real summary): Remus Lupin thought he was in love with a werewolf he met in the Forbidden Forest as a student at Hogwarts.  The only problem was that he didn't know who she really was.  They never saw each other as humans.  Twenty years later he comes back to Hogwarts to teach, and begins to fall in love again, this time with the owner of an Apothecary in Hogsmeade.  But what happens when the werewolf from his childhood reappears in his life.  Will he choose the love he was destined for, or the new love he's discovered?

**_Can't Fight the Moonlight_**

I: The Underused Apothecary

The night was young, and the soft glow of the newly risen full moon shone down through the openings in the treetops of the Forbidden Forest.  A lone wolf walked stealthily through the many trees, his paws making no sounds on the dead leaves he tread over.  His fur blended in with the darkness of the forest at night, so unless his prey caught the gleam of his grayish-gold eyes off the moon she would never know he was there.

The wolf was hunting, and he knew that his prey would be approaching the spot where he hid furtively behind one of the massive trees soon enough.  She would come tonight…she always came, but she always left the victor as well.  Tonight would be different.  Tonight he was set on finally taking down the prey that so cunningly outdid him month after month.  The wolf waited as moments crept by so slowly that he wondered if time were standing completely still.  His awareness was beginning to slip when suddenly a faint shadow passed over the ground, only to disappear as quickly as it had come.

_She is here_, the wolf thought apprehensively.  _And she is teasing me, letting me know of her appearance.  Sometimes I wonder if she isn't a match for my own wits._

He crept slowly out from behind the grove of trees he had been waiting in, and scanned the surrounding areas for the flash of an eye.  The one advantage to hunting on the full moon was that its brightness allowed for more ways of detecting the prey's movements through the usually pitch black forest.  This of course was also a disadvantage, considering the prey could also see _his_ movements, but the wolf knew he still held the upper hand.

He turned in slow moving circles, his eyes gazing over the landscape, searching for the one clue that would begin the game.  _There!_  It looked as if a single spark had ignited in the forest, and then suddenly died again in midair, but the wolf knew what it was.  In an instant he shot off through the darkness in the direction of the gleam, no longer caring about the crunching of the dead leaves below his feet or the gleam that his eager eyes certainly held.

Ahead of him only but twenty feet the prey had sprung into action as well, weaving through the trees and doubling back on her path so as to try and confuse her pursuer.  But the wolf was not so easily thrown off, and he had hunted this prey before.  He knew her secrets.  With every new ground they covered in the forest he inched ever nearer, closing the gap that was between them.  The prey's movements had become much less fluid, and decidedly more sporadic.  _She knows I am close tonight._

More minutes rushed by, and it no longer felt like time was standing still.  The wolf usually despised the full moon, but tonight he felt as if it would not remain in its place in the heavens long enough.  The loud snap of a twig echoed through the still night air.  _She is growing careless.  I will win tonight…_

Sure enough the sounds of the prey's running feet slowed gradually to a stop, and the wolf followed suit.  She had given up on the chase and taken to hiding in the shadows again.  _You can run, but you can't hide…  _He began to comb the shadows of the trees once again for movement.  He was close, and he knew it for his heightened senses were on the brink.

The wolf had not been standing still longer than a few seconds when he was suddenly knocked to the ground with a forceful leap, and before he could react or even know what had hit him two powerful paws had pinned him firmly in place.

His prey stood over him, and despite the fact that she could not speak for she was a wolf as well, Remus Lupin knew exactly what she was thinking.  _I win again, my friend!  Better luck next time…_

***Twenty Years Later***  
Harry Potter's Third Year

Remus Lupin sat up abruptly in his office, his head bent low over a stack of newly graded papers.  He rubbed his eyes, mind still foggy from the dream he had just awoken from.  He had spent many a night alone with his thoughts and his work in that office, and tonight was no exception.  He decided with a sigh that he was much to exhausted to walk all the way back to his quarters at this time of the night, so he simply laid his head back down on his desk and began to lose himself in his thoughts.  His mind drifted back to the times he had spent in this castle as a child, with his three friends…some of the few people that actually cared about him despite what he was.  They had even completed a dangerous transformation that allowed them to become three unregistered Animagi and accompany him when he transformed.  They kept him busy-and when he had company he did not become the monster he knew lurked somewhere in the depths of his mind.

He had been alone for the past thirteen years—and every transformation since then had been a silent reminder of that.  One night, he had waited until well past when the moon had set for his friend, but she hadn't showed up.  He never saw her again, and it hurt him deeply.  He had never known her in human form, and often wished they had stayed out long enough to find out…but they never did.  He had often thought about what she looked like, and though he was never able to come up with a physical description he knew that her eyes were the same greenish-gold color as his when she was a wolf.  But eyes were not enough to find a person.

People all around him were incredibly prejudiced against "half-breeds" and he had no close friends to speak of anymore.  James Potter and Peter Pettigrew had been betrayed and killed by Sirius Black and since then he hadn't gotten close to people.  He didn't trust anyone anymore.

One of the few people who still held all of Remus' trust was Albus Dumbledore, who was the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Dumbledore saw right past the werewolf factor and had hired him as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher when Remus could not find any work.  Hogwarts was known for going through Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers like water, but it was work nonetheless and quite an opportunity.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers that had come through Hogwarts were certainly not ordinary, however.  One had been an agent of Lord Voldemort, another was completely incompetent and wound up in St. Mungo's because a memory charm backfired and wiped away any of the knowledge he had to begin with.  _And now, _Remus thought, _they have a werewolf teaching…what's next?  A troll?_  He laughed to himself.  With that thought in mind he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Lupin awoke the next morning to an abrupt rapping on his office door.  He clambered to his feet and opened it groggily.

"Ah, good morning Professor McGonagall," Remus yawned.

"Good Morning.  I'm here to remind you that you signed up to accompany the third years in the next Hogsmeade visit this year."

"Oh, right.  Thank you…I'd completely forgotten."

"Enjoy your visit," she smiled.

"I'm sure I will."

Remus walked back to his quarters and put on a clean set of robes.  He was thankful that Professor McGonagall had not mentioned anything about the fact that he had fallen asleep over his work again.  He walked to the Great Hall to discover a loud clatter all around him of the visit to Hogsmeade.  He struck up a conversation with Hagrid over breakfast about whether or not you could tame a blast-ended skrewt.  Remus found most of Hagrid's reasoning most amusing. 

"Anythin' can be tamed…" Hagrid had claimed.  "They deserve a fair shot at it!"   When Remus had finished eating, he said good-bye to Hagrid and went down to Professor Snape's office.

"Hello Professor Snape," he said with a smile, upon entering the dungeons.

"Lupin."  Snape sneered without looking up at him.

Remus ignored Snape's usual coldness and continued speaking.  "I just thought I'd ask if there were any ingredients you needed for the Wolfsbane Potion that you have so kindly been providing for me, and if I could pick them up for you because I'm going to Hogsmeade with the third years today."  Remus almost gagged himself with how cheesy that sounded.

"As a matter of fact," Snape replied still not looking at Remus, "I need aconite, boomslang skin, bezoar, and fluxweed.  Think you can remember all that?"   He looked up, and apparently Snape noticed the blank look on Remus' face because he snarled, "You're the one that should know all those…it's _you_ who's the werewolf." 

Remus just smiled back at him and said, "Maybe I should write those down."  He found pleasure in being extremely polite to Snape…it seemed to make him even more annoyed.  He laughed to himself.

Snape rolled his eyes showing he was extremely aggravated, as he had to repeat each ingredient one-by-one so Remus could write them down.  Remus grinned.  He had gotten used to Snape acting as cold as he did, just as all the students and other faculty members had done.

Remus thanked Snape and when he got his usual snort of disapproval in return, he turned on his heal and walked out of the office.  He went up the stairs and joined the third years who had gathered excitedly, and Remus thought of when he was a third year and he had first gone to Hogsmeade with his best friends for the first time.  The first shop they had visited was Zonko's Joke Shop.  They had loaded their robes and pockets with as much as they could buy.  A smile formed on his lips.  He remembered that they had used all of their purchases up within a week of getting them.

He led the students out of the Entrance Hall after examining each face carefully to make sure Harry Potter was not among them.   He walked with them towards the gate to Hogsmeade and soon became just as excited as the students who were of taking a break from everyday life.  Suddenly Remus thought of something rather important.  _I wonder where the Apothecary is…_

_***_

The walk down into Hogsmeade was an enjoyable one, as the cool autumn air did not yet hold the bite of winter snow.  The children were all in high spirits and as they reached the front gates, and once they were inside they all headed off in search of Zonko's or to The Three Broomsticks for a drink.

With a fleeting glance at the Shrieking Shack, Remus set off in search of the Apothecary.  Luckily he didn't have to look far because the second store he came upon had "Apothecary" written across the top in peeling gold letters.  The store was clearly quite rundown.  The front door looked like it would fall off if you tried to open it, and the 'y' in "Apothecary" was hanging by one nail.

_I wonder if there is another Apothecary in town? _Remus thought to himself, unsure if he should keep walking or not.  He decided that he was much too lazy to keep looking and so he walked up to the dilapidated store and carefully opened the door.  As he did a small tinkling bell sounded somewhere in the back of the store.  He stepped in and closed the door behind him, looking around for someone who worked there and saw that the inside of the store was just as rundown as the outside, but on top of that it was incredibly cluttered.

There were bottles of various sizes stacked on top of each other, and cabinets full of ingredients that looked to be in absolutely no particular order at all.  Jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, and bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. There was a table, covered in stacks upon stacks of books that were all falling apart at the seams.  Pages littered the floor so that very little of it could actually be seen, and in one corner sat a large pewter cauldron with smoke lazily drifting out of it.  Despite the mess the little shop had a comforting feeling about it.  There was a fireplace on one wall with a small, moth eaten couch sitting in front of it.

_I wonder where the owner is?_ Thought Remus, but no sooner had he thought it a loud explosion rocked the shop and a cloud of smoke poured out from one of the back rooms.  Suddenly the front door flew open again and an older woman came rushing passed him.  She covered her face with her arm and ran through the smoke into the room it had come from.

"Halia? Halia! Are you alright child?" he could hear the woman shouting.  "I have told you time and time again _not_ to experiment with your potions!  If you destroy this place not only will you lose what little business you have, but your home as well.  And one day, its not just going to be your home, child, but your life!"

"I _know_, Mrs. Bruntick, I _know_…" came the defiant response.  "I am not a little girl any more, you know, you can't just come in and lecture me like you did when I was young!  I can look out for myself, and I didn't break anything but, er, I…I think I'm stuck…"

"Ok dear, hold onto the side of the bed and I'll try and pull it off," said the older woman.  Remus could hear the old woman straining to move whatever it was that the shop owner was obviously trapped under.  "Oh, I certainly am daft sometimes," the woman suddenly said.  The next thing Remus heard was "_Locomoter desk!"_

A few minutes later the old woman appeared from the smoke again, this time supporting a much younger woman under her left arm.  The younger looked to be in her very late twenties.  She had dirty blonde hair that was cut in a jagged pixie with shorter pieces framing her face, and some longer ones in the back barely touching the tops of her shoulders.  She had a slight limp, but Remus assumed this was from whatever had fallen on her in the explosion.

The girl looked up, suddenly noticing that someone else was in the room.  "Who are you?" she asked rather exasperatedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Remus Lupin and I am a professor at Hogwarts.  I was here to pick up some ingredients for a friend, er, fellow professor, but now doesn't seem like the best of times.  I can come back, or try somewhere else…"

"A customer!  No, no its fine I can get whatever you need, please sit down," she said rather quickly, trying to step forward on her hurt leg and motioning towards the chairs that were piled high with books and papers at the same time.

"Sit down on what?" chided the old woman under her breath.  The girl glared daggers at her, and Remus laughed.

"I'm fine, really.  Here, I have a list of what I need," he said, taking out the folded piece of parchments he had written down the ingredients on and handing it to the girl.

She took the parchment in one hand, and extended the other towards Remus saying, "I'm Halia, one of the town Apothecaries, and clearly the less used."  _So there is another Apothecary_, thought Remus, _oh well this girl looks desperate for business._

She looked down at the list, and then curiously back up at Remus.  "You're friend has some _special_ needs," she said.  "I'll have to get some of these out of my private stores.  Especially the aconite…your friend has only got about a week and half left."

"Excuse me?" asked Remus, quite taken aback.

"Your friend, this other professor, must be a werewolf.  All of these ingredients are used in the Wolfsbane Potion."  She noticed the surprised look on Remus' face and added. "Don't worry I know a few myself, being an Apothecary.  He _is_ a werewolf, isn't he?  Your friend?"

"Well, yes…that is to say…" Remus stuttered, still quite surprised that someone would just bring that up in every day conversation.  He wasn't about to admit that the potion was actually for him.  After all, no one was supposed to know…

Halia was now weaving in and out of the cluttered mess, still slightly limping, and trying to stand on a chair to reach something in a high cabinet.  "Do you need any help?" he asked politely.

"No," she replied, "I can almost…almost reach it…gotcha!"  She grinned triumphantly, grabbing the phial of boomslang skin in her outstretched hand.  "So, what is it like to teach at Hogwarts?" she asked, climbing down from the chair.  "I've seen the children down here on the weekends since I was a little girl."

"I couldn't really tell you," Remus admitted.  "This is my first year teaching and it's only just begun.  Did you go to Hogwarts?  When did you graduate?"

"Oh, no I couldn't go.  I was accepted, but my parents had different ideas about what I should do with my life.  My father was a wizard, and owned this shop before me, and my mother was a muggle.  They argued about it forever, and finally reached a compromise that I would train under my father as an apprentice.  I took over the shop when he died.  I wish I could have gone though…" Towards the end her voice drifted off and acquired a rather dreamlike air.

"Yes, and I have been keeping this store from being blown into ash ever since!" said Mrs. Bruntick, giving Halia a stern glance.  "Now that I've seen you're all in one piece I must be going.  Good day, Mr. Lupin."  She nodded to them both and walked out of the shop briskly.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bruntick own the shop next door.  They have been like foster parents to me since I was seventeen.  But anyways, I am afraid I don't have any fluxweed.  I would send you to the other Apothecary but I, um, I know their out as well.  I could probably find some by tomorrow afternoon if you want to come back?"

"That's fine, I can come back.  I will just pay you now, if that's all right, and stop by tomorrow afternoon for the fluxweed.  How much do I owe you?"

"Three Galleons and twelve Sickles," she replied good-naturedly.  _I'll bet the other Apothecary would charge at least double that_, Remus thought quite amazed.  He handed her the money, including a little extra.  _She can use all the help she can get.  It's not often I see someone with robes as patched together as my own._

She stammered her thanks for the extra money, and waved happily as he left the store to rejoin the other chaperones.  As he left she reached below the counter and grabbed a bottle of Butterbeer she had stored there.  Taking a large swig of it she thought to herself, _I should celebrate.  First customer in two weeks!_

***

Remus stepped outside into the cool summer air and breathed deeply. He caught up with Professor McGonagall in the Three Broomsticks and sat down at her table. With her also were Professor Flitwick and Professor Trelawny. Remus was about to say hello when he realized that Professor Trelawny and Professor McGonagall were in the middle of a heated discussion.

"Dear, let me see your mug," Professor Trelawny asked in her usual distant voice. 

"No, thank you Sibyl. I've had quite enough death predictions for one day," retorted Professor McGonagall. 

"Just…let…me…look…" Professor Trelawny said as she wrestled it out of Minerva's hand. "Thank you." 

Remus leaned over to Professor Flitwick and whispered quietly, "What's going on?" 

"They've been arguing for the past 10 minutes." Professor Flitwick yawned lazily as Remus redirected his gaze to the two witches. 

Sibyl Trelawny stared into the cup seemingly interested in what she might find in some tealeaf. Remus repressed a chuckle as he watched with amusement. All of a sudden, Sibyl gasped loudly and clapped a hand over her mouth. Tears filled her eyes as they met Minerva's. 

"My dear…oh, my dear, Minerva!" 

Professor Flitwick looked up from his Butterbeer to find out what had happened. 

"What is it this time, Sibyl," came Minerva's aggravated voice. 

"Oh my, it's, it's…" she tried to speak in between sobs. "It's the GRIM!" she blurted out. 

Everyone in the Three Broomsticks turned to look at their table. Remus and Professor Flitwick couldn't hold it in any longer and broke out in laughter at seeing Minerva rolling her eyes at Sibyl. The rest of the café returned to their interrupted conversations. Remus found it amusing that they only person that could get Minerva so unnerved was Sibyl Trelawny, the Divination teacher who clearly had no talent whatsoever for predicting the future. 

Remus stood up and said good-bye to his fellow teachers. When he got to the door, he distinctly heard Minerva say, "Sibyl, I haven't died the past 20 times you've predicted my death, and I'm not going to die this time, so let it go!" 

Once he had stepped outside, Remus continued down the sidewalk looking for nothing in particular when he came upon Zonko's Joke Shop. He paused for a moment and then took a step inside. The first people he ran into were Fred and George Weasley. 

"Hello, Professor Lupin!" they said in unison. 

"Hello, Fred, George. I see you're reloading your inventory. Don't you guys already have a lot of joke stuff?" 

"You can never have too much," George said with a mischievous smile. 

"Yeah, we gotta keep school interesting," Fred said. 

"I suppose," came Remus' reply. 

The Weasley twins purchased they're findings and left the store winking at Lupin as they rounded the corner. Remus shook his head and looked around thinking about his own troublemaking days. Zonko's was his and his friends' favorite shop when they were in Hogwarts and laughed to himself at how much the Weasley twins were turning out like the Marauders had. 

The shop hadn't changed one bit since he'd been in school. Aside from a few new creations, the store still looked like a muggle candy shop. There were plastic buckets lined against one of the walls and barrels underneath. They were all full of gadgets and gizmos, from fizzing whizbees to Dungbombs and the list goes on and on. On the other walls, there were shelves of anything one could imagine. He laughed out loud when he thought of what Argus Filch would do if he ever set foot in this store. 

He felt like he had only been in the shop for a few minutes when Professor McGonagall began calling for the Hogwarts students to begin making their way back to the castle. Remus reluctantly left the shop and walked back to Hogwarts with the students. 

*** 

Remus knocked on the door in front of him and heard a cold voice beckon him to come in. He stepped into Severus Snape's office and smiled politely. Snape looked up from a stack of papers that he was grading 

"What Lupin?" was the greeting he received. 

"I picked up what you needed for the potion," Remus said as he handed over the ingredients. "They didn't have any Fluxweed. She said to come back tomorrow and they'd have it." 

Snape picked up the phial of boomslang skin and examined it. He seemed disgusted by it. "Where did you get these ingredients, Lupin?" 

"Um…the Apothecary," he responded. 

"Which one might I ask?"

"The one that said 'Apothecary' on the top of it," came the smart-aleck reply. 

"Don't you know anything about quality, Lupin?" Snape drawled. He picked up rag from his desk and began dusting and cleaning the phial. "You should have gone to Wallandera's shop. They have…" he blew the dust off the other ingredients, "…much better quality items than that dump has." 

"Oh, let it go Severus. It'll all work the same," Remus replied. "I'll go back to Hogsmeade tomorrow to get the Fluxweed."

Snape eyed Remus coldly before sitting back down behind his desk and continuing to grade his papers.  Remus took this as a sign that what little welcome he may have had was gone, and so he left the dungeons and returned to his office to prepare for the next day's classes.

_***_

Sometime in the early morning hours, Remus didn't know when exactly, a raging storm began outside the safety of his small quarters.  He could hear the wind howling through the trees despite the thick castle walls, and the magnitude of the thunder was enough to keep anyone awake whether they were unsettled by storms or not.

Remus actually had never minded storms.  He understood them.  Sometimes they came up from absolutely nowhere, with no warning to speak of.  Other times you felt it on the wind that a storm was coming.  You just knew.  They could be violent and unpredictable depending on the conditions, or they could be mild and relatively harmless.

This particular storm lasted all day, and though it died down in intensity several times, it usually picked right back up again a short time later.  He had been hoping all day that it would stop before he had to go into the village again, but he had no such luck.  When his classes finally ended for the day it was nearing dinnertime, but deciding that he was not particularly hungry and that he would much rather get back before it was dark Remus set decided to brave the storm sooner rather than later.

He went up to his chamber and changed out of his robes.  They were patched and torn, and he did not think that being waterlogged would help them any.  Grabbing a coat to put on over his white button down shirt and trousers he started for the door.  Ten minutes later, after dragging himself through the rain that had decided to come down considerably harder the minute he stepped out the front doors to the castle, Remus finally reached the front gates of Hogsmeade.

It was not yet dusk, so thankfully the dementors were not patrolling the streets in search of Sirius Black.  Remus walked down the dirt road past the shrieking shack and up to the rundown Apothecary with the peeling sign.  He opened the door quickly, and once again heard the tinkling bell ring in the back of the store.  Remus shut the door quickly behind him, quite thankful to be out of drenching rain, and looked up to find Halia concentrating hard over a steaming cauldron.  He doubted she had even heard the bell for she didn't once look up to acknowledge his presence.

Her blonde hair was covered in dark black ash, as was a good deal of her face, and she was slowly adding in pinches of some bright red herb to the steaming cauldron.  Remus guessed that whatever she was trying to perfect had exploded on her several times.  He watched her for a moment, feeling it would be wrong to disturb as she had a look of utter determination on her face, but after a few moments of simply waiting in the doorway Remus cleared his throat hoping it would stir a response from her.

"Just a minute.  I'm almost done.  This just has to simmer a few more seconds."  She went over to the counter by the ingredient cabinets and grabbed what looked like a soup ladle and a thick metal goblet.  She ladled out the potion until the goblet was almost full, then turned around, raised the glass in a sort of toast and took a large gulp.  Immediately her face screwed up into a quite hilarious expression and she turned around and spit the potion out all over the floor.  It steamed where it landed.

"Too much bezoar…way too much bezoar.  But if I add any more sugar it won't work!  Oh, I think all I did was make it taste even worse…if that's possible…" The floor was still steaming.

"Is that safe?" asked Remus, looking slightly alarmed.

"I don't have much choice in the matter.  It's not like there is anyone I have to test my potions on besides myself.  No one would want to.  I tend to blow up most everything I experiment with, as you can tell, but I don't understand why this won't work…" She went on muttering about ingredients for a few more minutes and then looked up saying, "Oh terribly sorry!  You'll want your fluxweed.  I've got it in the back room…let me just go and get it."

She walked off into one of the many back rooms behind the shop, and Remus could hear her rumbling around in things trying to find the fluxweed.  She came back with it clutched in her hand, as well as another jar of some crushed powder.  She sprinkled it onto the potion, stirred it once, and then walked over to hand Remus the jar of fluxweed.

"Thank you," he said when she handed it to him.

"No problem," she replied.  "Nasty day, isn't it?  It's been storming all afternoon."

"Yeah, I had hoped it would let up before I had to come down here.  Didn't have much luck."

"You look chilled to the bone.  Care for a cup of tea?  That would warm you up."

"Well I should probably get back up to the school soon…I still have some essay's to grade…"

"Oh, one cup of tea.  It'll keep you warm on your walk back up," she insisted.  He agreed.

She went to the put the kettle on, and then walked back over to the cauldron and stirred in some more crushed powder.  She was shaking her head as she did so, however.

"I'll never get this right…"

After a few minutes the kettle began to whistle and Halia poured out two cups of tea and handed one to Remus.  "Thank you."

She cast one more reproachful glance at her obviously failed experiment, and then walked over to the table in that was piled high with old books.  She tried in vain to clear off two places at the table, but it was no use.  There was simply nowhere to put anything.

"I have been meaning to clean all this up," she said, her cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment.

"Why don't you just use an organizing spell?" Remus suggested.

"Because I don't know any.  I didn't go to school.  The only spells I know are what my father taught me, and there weren't very many.  I only know potions."

"That's the one thing I find I'm hopeless at…potions.  If you want I could have a go at organizing it all…at least to clear off the table."

"Oh could you?  I'll throw in some extra fluxweed if you can do it!" She replied happily.

He reached inside his coat for his wand, but found to his horror that it wasn't in his pocket.  He took off the coat and started shaking it upside down, apparently trying to see if it was simply in another pocket that he hadn't checked.  Halia started laughing as she shook the coat even harder, still producing no result.

"Don't tell me you've lost your wand?" she asked lightly.

"It certainly appears that way," he drawled sarcastically.  "I hope it didn't fall out of my coat when I was walking down here.  It's getting dark, and its still raining."

"Its not anywhere in here is it?"

"I hope not…I've got about as much a chance of finding it in here as I do in the dark!" Remus shot at her, trying to lighten the situation a little.

"Hey, this place isn't that bad.  It's…it's homey!"

"I suppose I had better go look out in the rain for it.  I can't teach without it.  I would never hear the end of it from Snape if I don't find it.  Thank you for the fluxweed."  Remus put his coat back on, and started for the door.  He was about to open it when Halia called out, "Hey, wait.  Do you need any help?"

"Sure, but why would you want to go out in the rain to help someone you hardly know?"

"Because I owe you one for the money, and my potion is a complete failure.  I have nothing else to do."

They walked outside, and were immediately pelted by the icy raindrops that were still falling, though not as hard as they had been when Remus came down from the castle.  Retracing Remus' steps, they combed the ground for his wand.  It was now nearing dusk and the sun was steadily dropping in the sky.

For nearly half an hour they looked over the waterlogged ground with no help.  Just as they were getting back down to the gate of Hogsmeade, the sun had completely dropped out of the sky, and it was nearly pitch black.

"This is hopeless," said Remus finally.  "I suppose I'll just have to go to Ollivander's after classes tomorrow and get a new one."

Halia was walking slowly behind him, still scanning the ground with her eyes.  "I'm sorry we couldn't find…"  Suddenly her foot snagged on a tree root, and she went flying face first to the ground.

"Are you alright?" asked Remus, hurrying over the spot where she had fallen.

"I'm fine…just a little muddy."  She tried to stand up, but suddenly a sharp pain shot up the leg she had trapped just the day before and she sat back down quickly with a grimace on her face.

"You don't look fine."

"Something jammed into my leg when I fell."  She reached her hand down to where she had fallen, and found what she thought was a small stick.  As she brought it closer to her face to see it in the darkness she started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Look what I found."  She held up her hand, twirling his wand between her fingers.

"I don't believe it," he muttered.  "We must have checked the ground around her twenty times."

"Maybe it was buried under the mud and we couldn't see it before," she suggested.

Well that solves that problem. Here let me help you."  He reached down to help her off of the ground but as soon as he touched her arm she flinched and pulled back quickly.

"I…I'm sorry you scared me," she said quickly, taking his hand and getting to her feet.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so."  She took a few steps to make sure, and found that she was fine.

"Well, I most definitely need to get back to the castle now," said Remus, turning to walk up.  "Good bye."

"Wait!" she said suddenly.  He turned around and looked at her quizzically.

"I…um…would you possibly walk me back to my store?" she asked in a rather embarrassed voice.

"Why?"

"I, well, I don't like the dark.  And usually I would be fine, but tonight," she motioned to the sky.  "Tonight there is no starlight or moonlight, and with the dementors around I would probably break down halfway there."

He looked at her for a minute, and then agreed.  They walked back to the gates of Hogsmeade, past the dementors, and up to the door of her store.  "Thank you," she said when they got there.  "I feel incredibly childish…" she laughed.

"Everyone is afraid of something," he replied, backing up from the doorway so she could shut it.  Just as the door was almost shut, Halia called after him, "You still owe me that cleaning."  She shut the door laughing.


End file.
